1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates broadly to crayfish harvesting and, more particularly, to apparatus for spacing, sheltering and trapping crayfish.
2. Prior Art
As the average lifespan of a crayfish is only eighteen months, great care must be taken to insure their survival for a long enough period not only to grow to maturity, but to protect them during the period prior to their dormant season as well as during the time they have been trapped but not harvested.
The present industry practice is to take the young crayfish and hand scatter them into a shallow pond. At this stage, the young crayfish are easy prey for turtles and snakes until they have had time to burrow into the pond bottom. Since the crayfish prefer to burrow next to logs, rock and similar natural obstacles in the pond bottom, there is, unfortunately, a tendency for the crayfish to cluster in fairly restricted areas. This raises several problems in feeding the crayfish and in harvesting the crayfish. With the crayfish clustered, much of the pond area is wasted and lower poundage per acre results. Secondly, it is harder to harvest mechanically around the obstacles even if it is known where they are.
Another problem is the loss of crayfish during harvesting which results from their predators' ability to get to the crayfish in the presently used traps.